I tried to open my eyes but they felt heavy. The next thing I felt was tears rolling out of my heavy eyes, with each droplet, my confusion grew. My instinct immediately kicked in and all I needed to do was get myself up from the dirty ground. First, I lifted my right hand rather swiftly, "Hmm", not what I expected. My left hand followed also too easily, not what I expected again. I was feeling numb, but could get myself up without any stress, in fact, swiftly. Seeing how easy it was for me to get up, my face brightened with a heavy smile of excitement but quickly got stolen away just as fast as it came. My head spun at the sight of my hands and legs. A chilling realization hit me, I could not see my hands and legs which also mean that I could not see my entire body. "Where the hell is my body?" I shouted.
**
My name is Sol Ibnura, and this is my story. Six months ago I was a normal living person, until a tragedy happened to me. An event that changed my life completely, created the thing that I have become, and than which may forever haunt me. I am a 30 year old average African man hustling and striving to survive the scorching economy. The idea here is hustle or perish, strive forward or fade away. I would do my best to put food on the table, to pay my bills and to also get something to catch some little normal fun, you know like play video games and watch movies, especially fantasy movies. I grew up with them, I loved them, the epic portrayals astonished me. Those kinds of movies whether 3D animations or live actions was responsible for my excessive day dreaming habit.
My imaginations always had the better of me. So much to the point that once I am not working, I am already into my imaginary world. I even had to believe that my mind was build specially to create vivid images for my fantasies and vivid dreams. I had walked into the dream world directly from my bed each moments I got into the REM state of my sleeps countless nights.
**
Still in shock, I continued to inspect my entire body. I could even see my back from my front, like I am some kind of transparent mirror or something like that.
"But how is all these possible?" I asked myself still staring at my hands.
"I know after death, one goes to heaven or hell. At least that's what we've been taught." The more I asked all those questions, the more confused I got.
Something else took my attention. A crowed gathering around something apparently laying on the ground. They all stared at it with disdain. Each of them would shake their head after getting enough of the show on the ground. "What could that be?" Curiosity took hold of me, and gently I let myself float in the air like a balloon. Slowly I flew passed all the people around the thing laying on the ground. On reaching there, my spectral eyes almost sprang out of their place at the sight of my own body laying on the ground completely lifeless and critically damaged. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed. I wanted to start wondering why my lifeless body looked so damaged when I over heard a police officer who came on the scene asking one of the bystanders there to give him a summary of what happened.
"He was knocked down by that car." the man pointed at a slightly damaged car, he continued "The impact of the car on him sent him flying into that unprotected transformer" pointing at a large electric power transformer near where my lifeless lies. "Hmm!" the police man sighed in amazement. "So you mean this young man got burned by a whole transformer?" He asked again. "Yes o" the bystander answered. "We had to call the district electric power suppliers to cut power so that we could remove the lifeless burned body from the transformer's body." the bystander concluded.
My eyes widened at the knowledge of what happened to me. I began to pant in fear and disgust. "Why couldn't I remember any of these things?" I asked in confusion.
"First I got knocked by a car, I flew into a transformer and got completely drained by electricity, yet, I couldn't remember any of these events?"
**
My life has always been an awkward one or at least what people would called awkward. A few experiences like Deja Vu and lucid dreaming kicked start a hunger in my belly. The hunger to know, so I became a seeker. Since my whole perspective of reality got skewed because of those experiences, I needed answers.
I started lucid dreaming since I turned Seven. Then, I did not understand the meaning of it. I could levitate, fly and teleport but I did not really grab the concept of it until I turned Twenty. It was as if there was a blackout and boom, the dreams came back. I suddenly realized that I was in a dream and I could understand the movement of the dreaming. I got so excited at first but I got a hold of myself with time and began to joyfully explore my dreaming world with much zeal, and even caught some fun in the process.
**
My spirit form could not help but notice the huge difference between it and the lifeless body on the ground. "I do not have a resemblance with myself again." I said, "How is this even possible?"
"Heaven or Hell, nothing else exist in between. But What is going on with me?"
I raised my head to look at the sky but got dumbstruck. I could see everything in high definition version. The blue sky, the white clouds and the sun. I could see them vividly and in a clarity I never dreamed of before. I narrowed my eyes thinking the light and heat from the sun would hurt them, but to my awe, my eyes were just fine.
"Heaven or Hell" I said again. My heart began to race in a speed I didn't understand. The realization finally hit me… Fear gripped me deeply this time. My eyes suddenly widened and I shouted, "Wait a minute… Why am I not in Heaven?"
I know I have not been the best person on earth, especially in a world like mine. Sometimes circumstances forces someone to do crazy stuff like scam someone or even steal. I never stole or scammed anyone but who is to say I didn't think of doing them. I needed money so I had to device ways of getting money. One time or two I cheated some of my customers to get more profit than I should. I could say I extorted but I was thinking of changing and becoming a better person before the accident happened. I always knew my ways were not clean, but I didn't really pressure myself because I needed to survive even if it mean being a gray kind of person.
"I should have done better" I said regrettably. Deep down I thought I had an idea on why I didn't go to heaven even after I died. Few months before the accident I was studying about human energy and Aura. How humans don't actually die away because of the nature of us. We are energy and energy according to science can neither be created nor destroyed, making us immortals spectral beings. We could live forever but as Spirits, which is why, the matter of Heaven and Hell is important. So I examined myself again, I looked into my spectral almost transparent palms and thought, "If I am not in heaven or hell, it means I am stocked on Earth and that too for a reason." Then I asked myself, "What should I do, where can I go?"
A Husky voice thundered into my soul to pull me out of my deep thought. "Alright" the voice echoed, "Now that the body is no longer here, everyone can go home."
"Hmm?" my eyes widened, "The body is no longer here?"
I quickly turned around and searched but I couldn't see my lifeless body. Not on the ground where it was, not anywhere around. "How did they carry my body without my notice?" I knew I was deep in thoughts but seriously, I should have notice them carry my body. I turned to the man with husky voice and shouted at him, "Hey! Where did you take my body to?" I asked but of cause I had no answer, for a second I forgot I was a ghost and that the man was a living. A sense of disappointment and unsure filled my whole being, "Of cause he can't hear me" I reminded myself. The rift between the living and the death was there.
"But where is my body?"